"Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness."

"The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort."

"We should not fret for what is past, nor should we be anxious about the future men of discernment deal only with the present moment."

"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

"In 2008, while the film version of my book 'Choke' was coming to market, my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. That meant that I had to appear in public to promote a comedy about a son trying to save his dying mother - the plot of Choke - while privately I was caring for my own dying mother. It was torture."

"If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant?"

"To a father growing old nothing is dearer than a daughter."

"Most women are pragmatists who have allowed extremists on the left and right to manipulate the family issue for their own purposes."